This invention relates to a method for identifying the source of each yarn in a fabric made on a machine for the purpose of tracing fabric nonuniformities back to the yarn and its manufacturing conditions.
A number of different textile operations involve feeding multiple yarns from individual yarn packages into a tufting, knitting, or weaving operation. If the properties of such yarns vary, for example, in dyeability, the variation is seen in the fabric as a streak. However, the fabric may not be dyed for several days after it is formed and, by the time that the nonuniformity is detected, a large amount of additional fabric may have been made from unsatisfactory yarn. Furthermore, by this time the faulty yarn has lost its identity and cannot be traced back to the spinning machine position on which it was made so that the reason for the off-standard property cannot be determined and corrected.